The kinds of radiation-hardened parts for such a mission do exist. The real challenge is to educate the community who will be proposing to build instruments for this mission on how to construct instruments which will be able to operate in this radiation environment.

We’ve done it before – the Galileo spacecraft made many flybys of Europa and even of Io, which is even deeper in the radiation belts of Jupiter. But never before has a spacecraft spent so much time – as this spacecraft will – in the vicinity of Europa; something like a year we want the spacecraft to be able to function.

So, it’s a challenge, but it can be overcome and it’s going to return spectacular results, really opening our eyes to how this icy satellite works and, for that matter the mission as a whole, as to how the Jovian system works.”

The Europa-Jupiter System Mission will focus on Jupiter’s icy satellites Europa and Ganymede, investigating their chemistry and geology.

Dr Robert Pappalardo from Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has led a study to scope out the venture. He told BBC science reporter Paul Rincon why this mission could yield “spectacular results”.”

The moon landing in 1969 was inspiring. But today, American scientists are better off fixing what ails Planet Earth.

By: Dayo Olopade | Posted: July 20, 2009 at 6:32 AM

Forty years ago this week, a man walked on the moon. The ultimate prize in the decade-long “space race,” the two-and-a-half-hour moonwalk by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin remains a testament to American exceptionalism, technological prowess and nationalist fervor. And face it, it’s pretty thrilling to watch. In honor of meeting the scientific challenge that defined the 20th century, Aldrin recently called for a mission to Mars: It is “time to go boldly once more,” he declared. “Let the lunar surface be the ultimate global commons.”

Retired Major General Charles Bolden, recently confirmed as the first African-American head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is at the helm of this new mission. The former astronaut has taken four space flights with over 680 hours spent in Earth orbit, and—like so many of the racial “firsts” that Obama has casually brought to power—that, too, is cause for cheering. First lady Michelle Obama used Bolden as an example of success when speaking to graduating students at Washington’s Math and Science Tech Public Charter High School. “He grew up in the segregated South and became a fighter pilot in the Marines,” she said. “Each time he broke away from gravity’s hold, he shattered stereotypes.”

It is a lovely story—retold at the president’s meeting with Bolden and the crew of Apollo 11. However, in the midst of a financial crisis consistently reported as the worst “since the Great Depression,” it’s not obvious that America should do as Aldrin wants. NASA does a world of scientific good, but the human spaceflight program that is the most prominent and nostalgia-provoking is also the most wasteful and the least necessary. Given the host of other priorities facing America, it might be time for the U.S. to hang up its moon boots.

Six flags, 12 sets of dusty footprints and 382 kg of rock; all at a cost (at 1960s prices) of some $20bn.

The Apollo Moon landings were a remarkable technical, scientific and political achievement and their 40th anniversary is undoubtedly a cause for celebration.

I’ve been privileged enough to interview seven of the men who walked on the Moon and I’m enjoying this Apollo nostalgia-fest as much as anyone.

One phrase though always sticks in my mind, and it came from the last man on the Moon, Gene Cernan. He asked: “When are we going back?”

Perhaps now, the more important question is: why are we going back?

Via Ken Rockwell

If you count missions that didn’t touch down, (like Apollo 13), I think you will find there were 10 manned expeditions to the moon: Apollo 8 through 17.

I wanted to share a link about brand new photos the current Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken of the original Apollo landing sites. The photos are the first views of the sites since the missions and are exciting to see. More exciting will be the higher quality versions NASA is planning when the orbiter reaches its final orbit. According to the article, they will be 3 times the resolution.

In reading wikipedia just now, there was an interesting point brought up. The photos returned from the Apollo missions of Earth itself has inspired environmentalism in many people. It’s hard to quantify such an impact, but it’s likely vast.

The second man to walk on the moon has an odd op-ed in the Washington Post today, “Time to Boldly Go Once More.” Not surprisingly, he wants to go to Mars, but a key reason he offers — to study climate change — is very strange indeed.

As agency presents its $18B budget, White House calls for closer look at space flight plans
By Sharon Gaudin

Plans for NASA to send humans back to the moon might be in jeopardy.

President Barack Obama’s administration today called for an independent review of NASA’s human space flight activities.

Looking at possible alternatives to programs already in the pipeline, the review is geared toward making sure the country’s human space flight program remains “safe, innovative and affordable” after the space shuttle is retired, NASA says.

Acting NASA Administrator Christopher Scolese said in a statement, “The thousands of workers who have given so much over the years to bring human spaceflight to where it is today deserve nothing less than a full assurance their commitment will be applied in the smartest and most practical ways.”